Beliefs & Understandings

Foundational Beliefs:

Education, training and development are primary and sustainable vehicles for improving the human condition.

Faculty are privileged, by chance, to live in a nation such as Canada and to be employed as academics at the University of Regina. With this privilege comes a responsibility to work towards the betterment of conditions for others, consistent with the social justice strategic emphasis articulated by the University of Regina. The fundamental principle underlying all CIET activity will be an ethic of service.

CIET should engage only in development work that seeks to understand and respect the cultural identity of international partners.

Public education in Saskatchewan has evolved, and continues to evolve, through a uniquely collaborative relationship among educational partners that provides a model that can be presented as a way of accomplishing meaningful development in education.

International involvement enriches the educational perspective of our undergraduate and graduate students, as well as our faculty members.

Projects must be designed to be interdependent so that all participants benefit (e.g., through international exchanges involving students or faculty, or linkage projects co-developed by Canadian and international scholars, etc.).

All revenues that accrue to CIET should be used exclusively to support the infrastructure of CIET, or to support other international projects sponsored by CIET. CIET activities should never be viewed as, or used as, a revenue generating mechanism by the Faculty of Education or the University of Regina.

All faculty members who are interested in international work and share these principles, which have been collectively developed, should be invited to participate in the activities of CIET.

International activity is a form of collaborative scholarship and should be recognized as such for all purposes, and at all levels of the university community.

CIET research must be conducted in the service of the international partner, acknowledging that all participants (researchers and international partners) will have the opportunity for mutual benefit and to learn from each other.

Understandings:

It is understood that CIET must secure sufficient contract overhead income to ensure that it can continue to fulfill its mandate. However, consistent with the principles articulated above, it is our fundamental belief that CIET is not a tool for revenue generation; therefore, we believe that whatever revenues accrue to CIET should be used exclusively to support the infrastructure of CIET, or to support other international projects which originate in the Faculty of Education, consistent with university policy.

It is understood that all CIET activities must be congruent and consistent with the vision, mission and policies of the Faculty of Education and the University of Regina.